Monday, January 12, 2015

our old house

I drove by our old house on Vancroft Ave. the other day and every time I do it always brings up old feelings and memories, and it is so crazy to me how fast time flies!

Josh and I rented our first house together in 2006. We had been together since 2005; he was living in a small apartment he rented from his aunt and uncle and I was living in my own small apartment that I rented from my uncle. Our first house was an old three bedroom with an enclosed wrap around front porch over by the pond and the deli. We spent our days at work and our evenings and weekends home with each other and our animals (who were our babies at the time).

We watched the Red Sox win the world series in that home and Army Wives was my show at the time and we used to watch it in our bedroom (which had boring white walls and an ugly dark red rug) before falling asleep at night on our full size bed. We'd get sandwiches at the deli and our daily coffee down at the Dunkin' Donuts in that plaza. It's when I bought my first brand new 2007 Hyundai Tucson and it's where we fostered with an animal shelter for the first time and fell head over heels in love with Sheba. It's where the first few hours of having Sheba I ran out to the store and Josh had the dogs outside and Sheba jumped over the rock wall and Josh found himself chasing her down the road, thinking he was going to lose her or that she would get hit by a car. We took the dogs for walks around the pond, run around and played with Dakota and Sheba in our fenced in backyard, and it's where we cuddled with each other and the animals on Josh's old blue couch in the TV room. Dallas came to us in the fall, and although we weren't looking to add another animal to the three we already had, the box with blankets that we made for him outside in our tiny driveway just felt wrong and he stole our hearts and became a beautiful addition to our little family. We'd sit on that enclosed porch and we would talk and listen to music and watch the thunderstorms in the summer. We talked about getting engaged and I bugged him about getting married and having kids more than I am sure he liked :) We took our first trip together to Florida in February 2007 where he proposed to me and we came back home to a freezing cold house (it was awful!) because the furnace was always dying on us.

Every time I think back on old memories or people or animals that were once in our lives but are not anymore or places we have lived that have become a distant memory it always helps ground me and is such a great reminder to live in the present. It is so funny how when you are younger you always want to rush to the next stage in your life- to turn 21, to get engaged, to get married, to buy your first house, to have children, and then once you are older you would give anything to slow down time a bit and enjoy the moments exactly where you are.